Those are just some of the corporate investors who poured capital and jobs into Greater Boston over the past 18 months. The list alone explains why the Boston region continues to be the No. 1 life sciences cluster in the nation, according to JLL’s annual Life Sciences Outlook Report released in July.

The area’s perennial popularity has pushed companies to more affordable space in the suburbs. That trend holds nationwide. Wherever they may land, they keep coming, chalking the cost up to the price one must pay for access to innovation and talent.

The San Francisco Bay Area continues to lead the nation in patents, with 1,652 total in 2013.

“While the average rent for laboratory space rose by an average of three percent nationwide in the past year, rents grew dramatically in the top clusters — by 16.9 percent in San Francisco and 15.5 percent in San Diego,” said JLL. “The national average rent per square foot (PSF) for lab space is $24.30, but has skyrocketed to $47.40 PSF in Boston and to $37.30 PSF in San Francisco.”

“In their U.S. operations, biopharmaceutical companies are being squeezed by rising costs for highly trained talent, more expensive real estate markets and a shrinking supply of available laboratory space,” said Roger Humphrey, executive managing director and leader of JLL’s Life Sciences group. The crunch is particularly acute in Boston, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. “Many are willing to pay a premium for proximity to the leading research institutions and scientists, but the lack of space is compelling companies to look at secondary sites that are a little less conveniently located.”

“Rising rents are one reason small and mid-sized biotech companies are heading to Philadelphia, Denver and other more affordable locales, and saving their dollars for talent recruitment,” said the JLL report. As rent growth increases, low interest rates make construction a reasonable option in some locations, such as Minneapolis or Indianapolis, and those locations with available land and few life sciences facilities for rent.

Following are excerpts from the JLL report, whose complete findings are available at a dedicated website found at www.us.jll.com.

Leaders still leading

Boston remains the clear US and world leader. The San Francisco Bay Area continues to lead the nation in life sciences patents, with 1,652 total in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available. The Raleigh-Durham area has experienced a strong uptick in life sciences start-ups and employment stemming from the region’s well-regarded research institutions.

Generic demand on the rise

In 2015, the life sciences industry continues to change in response to growing regulatory and demand pressures from across the globe. As policies like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the United States take hold, demand for generics is growing.

Branded pharma consolidating rapidly

The increase in generics demand is leaving branded pharma firms looking for new revenue sources. This has also created a spike in merger and acquisition activity as “big pharma” seeks to maximize vertical integration and enhance innovation. Though M&A activity in the life sciences sector is contributing to a disposition of real estate, vacant lab space is often being claimed by mid-size firms and developers looking to capitalize on central location and infrastructure.

Innovation boost means new space and labor requirements

Biopharma production, and its generic counterpart, biosimilars, has increased as firms look to new, creative drugs that will make a profit in the competitive market. Biopharma research focuses on synthesizing biological sources to create pharmaceuticals. Small and mid-size biopharma firms are ripe for M&As, as large companies look to diversify their portfolios and to create high- impact drugs that counteract revenue declines. This type of production is labor-intensive, harnessing the mental acuity of highly trained scientists, often with PhDs. The increase in biopharma work requires highly educated employees and, therefore, real estate near elite educational institutions is more in demand. The overall cost of operating in the life sciences sector is ticking upward due to the increase of lab rents in prime clusters, R&D costs and higher wages for skilled employees.

Lower vacancy, higher rents

The surge of M&A activity, evolution of products and global demographic trends all affect the demand for lab space. The industry is seeing increased development of open floorplans, which foster innovation and attract young, millennial workers. There is also a need for more specialized lab and incubator space, as firms focus on live-cultured biopharma research. Further, new small and mid-sized biopharma firms are scooping up labs across the major U.S. markets — leasing locations vacated by consolidating firms. All this activity is reducing the amount of vacant lab stock across the major clusters and giving landlords the opportunity to push rents higher.

In the future, space restraints may push demand toward new clusters like Dallas, Houston and Portland where talent pools are available and real estate conditions are becoming increasingly favorable to growing life sciences companies.

Generics producers are increasingly looking to emerging markets, which have increasing capital to spend on medications. India, for instance, has experienced a huge expansion in generic development and manufacturing. Generic pharma does not have a large domestic US real estate footprint. Manufacturing mainly occurs in California, which is home to 17.9 percent of all generic manufacturing. Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida are also popular locales for these companies.

In the future, space restraints may push demand toward new clusters like Dallas, Houston and Portland.

In the United States, average annual wages for life sciences jumped 6 percent, from just over $66,000 to over $70,000, between 2011 and 2014. Due to the size of the available labor pool and advanced educational requirements of life sciences companies, we expect wages will continue to increase. This keeps the cost of doing business high for life sciences companies and places expense management in areas such as real estate under greater scrutiny.

Lab rents went up 3.1 percent on average between 2013 and 2014, which, combined with higher wages, creates a balancing act between cost management and attracting and retaining high-value talent.

“We expect companies will invest in technology to make research less labor-intensive — a long-term strategy for the sector,” says JLL.

New Jersey Center of Excellence Attracting Cutting-Edge Innovators in Science and Technology

Since acquiring the former Sanofi-Aventis headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., Advance Realty has repositioned the site into New Jersey’s premier research and development campus. A regional hub for innovation and discovery, the New Jersey Center of Excellence boasts an in-place infrastructure that includes state-of-the-art lab facilities, redundant utilities and cutting-edge communications capabilities. These features ensure business continuity necessary for success in sectors such as electronics, bio-pharma, food and nutrition, chemical, and cosmetics.

There are currently several single- and multi-tenant spaces available for lease on the 800,000-square-foot campus. All spaces offer flexible configurations with a minimum division of 2,500 square feet. In addition to the space currently available, the New Jersey Center of Excellence offers 400,000 square feet for build-to-suit purposes. Tenants also benefit from the complex’s premium amenity package, which includes a full-service cafeteria, a fitness center, conference facilities, back-up generators and 24/7 security.

“We’re at the start of a new paradigm, where innovative companies of all sizes can have access to world-class space in order to develop products that will shape the way we live in the future,” said Peter J. Cocoziello, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advance Realty. “Companies operating at the New Jersey Center of Excellence, whether start-ups or established companies, are able to benefit from an in-place infrastructure for scientific discovery that is rarely found away from a university setting.”

Perhaps most noteworthy is the campus’ proposed “town center.” The planned development of onsite hotel, retail, restaurants, multifamily and entertainment components will result in a dynamic ‘live-work-play’ environment for employees and will attract top-quality talent to this unique community.

“Today’s worker is seeking a type of work/life balance that requires developers to think differently,” Cocoziello said. “The vision we’re working toward involves creating a bustling, highly amenitized, 21st-century ‘company town’ in one of New Jersey’s most bucolic settings and also one of the world’s historically great corridors of innovation — Central New Jersey.”

What’s Your Story?

by BARB LAMUE,Vice President of Economic and Community Development for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC)

Wisconsin: A Bioscience Powerhouse

Companies or individuals looking to make the next great discovery in bioscience are setting their sights on Wisconsin. Anchored by such renowned research institutions as the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), the Medical College of Wisconsin and Marshfield Clinic, the state has a strong, diverse bioscience cluster that is advancing health and improving lives worldwide.

According to the 2014 Battelle/BIO Report, there are 1,391 bioscience business establishments in Wisconsin that employ nearly 32,000 private sector individuals. The report notes that the state’s bioscience industry grew by 8.2 percent from 2007-2012. Additional resources such as the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and BioForward provide a supportive environment that not only promotes the industry, but also helps companies commercialize their research breakthroughs. As a result, bioscience is booming in Wisconsin, and companies operating here benefit from a long tradition of innovation.

Creating a “Culture of Discovery”

Wisconsin’s “culture of discovery” is especially strong in its capital city. The 2014 Battelle/BIO Report states that out of the 381 metro areas in the U.S., Madison ranks in the top nine when it comes to specialized employment concentration in bioscience. The city also ranked fourth in the nation for job concentration in the drug and pharmaceuticals subsector, with nearly 2,000 workers employed in that field in 2012. Additionally, the city ranked eighth nationwide in job concentration in medical devices and equipment, a field that employs about 2,000 people in the region, as well with an employment concentration that is 50 percent higher than the national average.

Madison is also home to one of the top research institutions in the nation, UW-Madison, which devotes $1.2 billion each year to academic research, with 70 percent directed toward bioscience. In addition to UW-Madison, Wisconsin offers a top-tier university system that produces graduates who are passionate about the bioscience industry and ready to devote their talents to the demands of the jobs that await them. This talented workforce helps the state’s top bioscience companies, such as GE Healthcare and Promega, as well as innovative startups like Lucigen Corp. and Isomark LLC, tackle new challenges to continue pushing the boundaries of bioscience discoveries throughout the state.

Talented Workforce Yields Breakthrough Technologies

Exact Sciences, a molecular diagnostics company, has taken advantage of Wisconsin’s strong bioscience industry and access to top universities for talent recruitment in order to continue innovating and finding new ways of advancing the industry.

The company has proven time and again their ability to solve the previously unsolvable problems facing the industry. After relocating to Wisconsin in 2009, Exact Sciences pioneered a non-invasive colon cancer test which has been proven to detect 92 percent of cancers in average-risk patients. In just five short years, the company grew from a two-person startup to a team of more than 400 employees, and will soon break ground on a brand-new facility to house their growing staff—the number of employees is expected to reach more than 800 by the end of 2015.

Phillips-Medisize, a manufacturer of medical devices and diagnostics also continues to invest and expand in Wisconsin, drawing upon the state’s high caliber workforce.

“We hire anywhere from 10 to 20 graduates per year from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and they’re able to give us the types of people that we need that are committed, hard-working, knowledgeable and familiar with our business,” said Phillips-Medisize CEO Matt Jennings.

Aiding Alzheimer’s Research and Development

In addition to cancer-related research and discovery, Wisconsin is helping develop solutions to assist individuals who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health recently partnered with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases to collaborate on research efforts to treat people already diagnosed with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, as well as those with an increased risk of developing these diseases.

The research teams will work on a number of projects that include developing new therapies to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia, identifying new biomarkers to aid early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease, improving the care for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, and more.

Why Wisconsin

With Wisconsin steadily emerging as a bioscience powerhouse, it’s no wonder companies and individuals are looking to the state for their next big discovery. The bioscience business climate in Wisconsin is rich with research and attractive to companies looking to establish, commercialize and grow here. The state’s initiatives and policies are creating an environment that supports the bioscience cluster and commercialize its discoveries. For more information about the state’s growing bioscience industry or to grow your business in Wisconsin, visit inwisconsin.com.